The Sub is a 88 so second year with Fuel Injection. Still has the TH400 though so other the the FI it would be identical to a 85. 86 is a Odd year and I would not recommend buying one. The 350 motor was a one year only deal then they went FI for the 350 powered ones. I think the 454 was the same as 85 so it would probably be ok.
For most of the use we get out of the truck and the weight of the Caravanner we have the 3.73 is great gear for us BUT I intend to pull a truck on a trailer from time to time and might want to swap to a 4.10 if that becomes more regular. I may still get a Gear vendors Overdrive for it either way. The 454 really likes lower RPM's for steady cruise. Mine rates its peak Torque at 385 lbft at 1600 RPM and holds it pretty flat till about 2700 RPM. Its sweet spot is about 2200 RPM for best economy when running empty.
I bought the truck off another Forum member, Ira Iberg, almost 2 years ago. He took wonderful care of it and I was very fortunate that he was ready to sell when I was ready to buy. It truly was the best in town that I could find.
Its been pulling Airstreams most of its life. The PO had a Safari and then a Excella he pulled with it. When it wasn't pulling it was tucked in a car port. Its in great shape and just rolled 84,000. Had 72k when I bought it. Only had some minor problems when I bought it. One was just age was catching up and had to replace all the heater hoses it had some bad vacuum lines (those plastic lines they were using back then become very brittle and crack so watch that on the 85),bad gasket on the TBI base and the rims had all warped from brake heat. I replaced the rims with the mags you see in the picture. Now it runs down the road pretty smooth for a 3/4 ton. Actually rides really nice with 5 people and luggage.
I have been setting it up as the ultimate tow vehicle. We want to get a Honda 2000eu generator and we want to bring our bikes so I put that roof rack on it. It has bike racks in it and it will easily handle the generator and a 5 gallon gas can (don't want anything with fuel in either the truck or the camper). Put the halo lights up so we can light dark campsites from any side for late night set up.
The 4 headlight systems are just junk. Cant find decent bulbs for them at all. The H4 selection is non existent for that style. I did some horse trading for the AUX lights. The big ones are Hella Ralley 1000 Euro beams. They are the lights you would see on Desert race vehicles and Rally race cars. They will honestly throw a beam nearly 3/4 of a mile as rated. They are tied into the high beams and automatically come on. The amount of light they put out is astounding!
The lower lights I am not happy with. They will probably be removed. They are wired to be on with low beam and go off with the high beams. They are suppose to be driving lights but the beam is unfocused and you can not have them on for normal driving like you are suppose to. They blind oncoming drivers. Probably replace them with some Fogs and use them on the rear of my other truck for utility lights.
Some other doo dads: We are setting up a Laptop that will be tied into our Garmin GPS for Navigation duties. It will also be tied into the Trucks computer so I can real time monitor the motor. Then also play DVD's to keep the kids entertained. I'll be hooking it up to a Cingular Data set up for internet access while on the road.
Thats awful on the title issue. You will find one though. Check south. FL is the place to buy used Airstreams. People will often travel for a few years right after retiring and then buy a house there and sell the campers. Buy the 85 plan a couple weeks n Orlando to shop and go to Disney and drag one home.
Here is a site you might find interesting. One of my internet friends maintains this. He collects sales brochures for GM trucks and has been kind enough to make them available on-line. Whats really funny is how often GM used Airstreams in Suburban ads.
http://brochures.slosh.com/
See if he has remote linking allowed.
OK, enough of my hijack of your thread.
Linear Mode
